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Meet our turkey farmer, John

Words by Charlotte

31 October 2022 | 

2 mins

John, one of our turkey farmers

We’ve spoken a lot about our farmers as of recently, but this Christmas, our turkey farmers really are taking the front seat. With over 10 million turkeys purchased over the Christmas period in 2021, it’s important to know where your turkey is coming from on such a special day. Meet our incredible turkey farmer, John Malseed by reading ahead and see more on our social media platforms, where John answers our questions on all thing’s turkey farming.

If you have been following our social media channels, in August, you will have seen our videos of John Malseed, our beloved turkey farmer. Situated in the Dartmoor National Park near Chagford, Devon, it is farmed by the Malseed family as part of the Duchy Estate. They have been producing Traditional Christmas Turkeys for the last 35 years which are now recognised as an award-winning product.

Slowly rearing his turkeys for approximately 6 months, John believes (similarly to us), that putting welfare first is the best way to produce the highest quality turkey. Free to roam and forage around Frenchbeer Farm, the turkeys have a natural distribution of fat, making them less likely to have health problems due to obesity (eg. heart failure and joint issues), that are common amongst intensively farmed white turkeys. Natural growth and muscle distribution is so important when farming any animal. Not only does it affect the quality of the cut, but also the welfare of the animal.

John's turkeys

John has a great relationship with his birds, rearing them from hatchlings to fully-grown turkeys. When we visited him down at Frenchbeer, he spoke about their ‘teenage gobble’. John can call the birds and they will respond with a gobble, however when they are ‘teenagers’ their ‘voices’ are essentially breaking, so a cracked gobble is released (see our short video on this here).

It is always an honour to be able to work with only the best farmers in the industry, to provide you, our loyal customers with high-quality, free-range cuts that will always taste incredible. John ensures the highest of standards when it comes to welfare and quality and we can really tell the difference between his Bronze turkeys and the average supermarket white turkeys.

With this in mind, we think it is important to talk about the campaign we are running this year, to support farmers and those struggling with food poverty this winter. In partnership with FareShare South West we’ve launched our LEG UP campaign for Christmas 2022. If you order a Turkey Crown from us this Christmas, we’ll automatically donate the legs to FareShare South West. One pair of legs is enough to serve 2-3 vulnerable people who might not have access to a Christmas dinner, reduce food waste and therefore environmental footprint, and support our free-range farmers. We’ll also be listing our free-range Turkey Legs on our website for you to buy and enjoy this Christmas. The slightly darker meat is both tender and full of flavour.

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